For the Lord’s Sake

For the Lord’s Sake

“submit yourselves to every ordinance
of man for the Lord’s sake”
1 Peter 2:13

Within man, there is an inherent defiance against submission to anything. It is woven into the very DNA of humanity. Peter’s words here are convicting and they reveal the truth of our submission to God. The key to this deep truth is the phrase:

“for the Lord’s sake”

Those who live to please Him will find many places in the scriptures where the will of God is contrary to everything that seems prudent and tolerable to the carnal man. There are many instances where Israel rebelled against foreign governments and kingdoms in which God had placed them because of their own disobedience to Him!

Peter’s martyrdom was not because God’s people were seditious; it was because the Light shone so brightly from the purity of the love they had for one another. God’s people revealed righteousness in the way they lived, and Jesus declared “marvel not that the world hates you”. The multitude of martyrs throughout the centuries has stood for truth. When Daniel prayed to God under threat of punishment, he was not doing it to be rebellious to the king. Even as he was being let out of the lion’s den, we see his heart: “O king, live for ever”. There was no animosity or open defiance; he simply continued to serve his God in quiet obedience.

We can be deceived into thinking we are doing the Lord’s work by becoming adversaries to the governments of men. There is a spiritual treachery in this. In scripture, we read that God’s people moved from one place to another because of oppression and tyranny, but we are never to be rebellious or sectarian in this world. Our allegiance binds us to Him alone.

“But when they persecute you in this city,
flee ye into another…”
Matthew 10:23

“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself:
but the simple pass on, and are punished”
Proverbs 22:3; Proverbs 27:12

Peter spoke these powerful words in a time when thousands of Christians were being martyred at the hands of an evil despot. Peter became one of them. Because their lives were lived “for the Lord’s sake” they no longer involved themselves in the “affairs of this life”. The question is, are we true soldiers for Christ? Or do we call ourselves by His name but choose our own will and natural inclinations over His?

“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier”
2 Timothy 2:4

Submission is the highest expression of the verity of our walk with God. Obedience is the revelation of a true disciple of Christ; the crux of our daily walk with him. When I hold unforgiveness, when I seek to elevate myself over my brother, when I slander another out of jealousy or envy, when I become an adversary to authorities*(see note below), I can rest assured I know little of the mind of Christ! These are expressions of a life of pretense and hypocrisy. The coming fires will differentiate between those who serve the Lord and those who serve themselves (Malachi 3:18).

Jesus said if His Kingdom was of this world His servants would fight, clearly demonstrating the nature of His Kingdom and how we ought to conduct ourselves in this world.

“My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews…”
John 18:36

The irrefutable truth will stand in this hour:

My submission to His Will
is revealed in my obedience.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him…”
Philippians 2:5-9

What was the Father’s reaction to this amazing life? “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted HIM”! Do we truly seek God’s favor, or do we deceive ourselves by claiming our rights, becoming adversaries of our governments rather than being a light by which they are influenced? How little I know of the deep workings of the cross in this aspect. We may adorn our churches, ourselves, and whatever else with the emblem of the Cross, but we are soon coming to a time when its bitter workings will either produce a pure, humble, and clear expression of the ONE who died and gave Himself for us or a rebellious people who (by their actions) love and live in this present world.

Related Post: The Things to Come – I remember receiving this word in 2016 before the virus with a sense of the beginning of great changes to come where the days would begin to darken…

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Oswald Chambers

“submit yourselves to every ordinance
of man for the Lord’s sake”
1 Peter 2:13

“Peter’s statements in these verses are remarkable, and they are statements the modern Christian does not like. He is outlining what is to be the conduct of saints in relation to the moral institutions based on the government of man by man. No matter, he says, what may be the condition of the community to which you belong, behave yourself as a saint in it. Many people are righteous in connection with human institutions. Paul continually dealt with insubordination in spiritual people. Degeneration in the Christian life comes in because of this refusal to recognize the insistence God places on obedience to human institutions. Take the institution of home life. Home is God’s institution, and He says, “Honor the father and thy mother”; are we fulfilling our duty to our parents as laid down in God’s Book? Guard well the central institutions ordained by God, and there will be fewer problems in civilized life. We have to maintain spiritual reality wherever we are placed by the engineering of our circumstances by God; as servants, we are to be subject to our masters, to the froward master as well as to the good and gentle.”
– Oswald Chambers

*Note: When John the Baptist spoke to Herod about the sin of having his brother’s wife his attitude and heart were not adversarial against Herod – for even Herod was saddened by the execution of John. This is critical to note for us in this day.

“For Herod feared John,
knowing that he was a just man and an holy,
and observed him; and when he heard him,
he did many things, and heard him gladly”
Mark 6:20

Brian Troxel